It has been awesome having the 6th graders back in the GATE classroom! Our first day back had a few hiccups as we navigated the 7/8 Compact math schedule, but luckily, we were able to get that mostly sorted out for week 2. I had the students with issues communicate via email with their math teachers, and I also followed up for clarity with their teachers as well. Overall, I think the first math day went well!

The 6th graders have started their first theme unit on the topic of wisdom. They created graffiti walls summarizing their findings about the meaning of wisdom and distilled that information to create their own definitions of wisdom. This lead to some discussion that will carry us into the process of Socratic seminar and crafting interpretive questions next week. 

While the 7/8 Compact math students were working on their lessons, the other students started brainstorming research topics for the upcoming Study of the City unit. The 6th graders will each study and present on something about Boise, and they will then use those topics to design a Downtown Boise walking field trip to go on this Fall. Previous trips included things such a presentations at City Hall, a Basque tasting menu, and art gallery visits.